Description:
"In this fascinating, witty, and provocative book, Delbourgo's collectors range from emperors to scientists, from shopaholics to taxonomists, from bibliomaniacs to serial killers. Give it to the collector in your life, and watch the sparks fly!"--Cathy Gere, author of The Tomb of Agamemnon
A captivating history of obsessive collectors: from ancient looters and idolaters to fin de siècle decadents, Freudian psychos, and hoarders.
Brief description: James Delbourgo is the James Westfall Thompson Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University. He previously taught at McGill and Harvard, and is author of the prize-winning Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum. He lives in New York.
Review Quotes: Delbourgo's book deals with a different 'dark side of collecting'... [A Noble Madness] ultimately concludes that throughout history and the world over, 'by expressing that love' for things, collectors 'are themselves.'--Maggie Taft "Booklist"